Spirit Of The Airacobra

On May 1, 1942, a flight of six American Airacobra fighter planes took off from Townsville in north Queensland for the battle zone of Papua New Guinea. At the tip of Cape York, bad weather forced them down to within a hundred metres of the sea. With fuel and daylight running out, their only hope lay with their 22-year-old flight leader Lt. Charlie Falletta. This episode retraces that fateful flight, and recounts the battle of Townsville man Syd Beck to resurrect this small, forgotten piece of our wartime history.